Paychex Second Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, December 19, 2012. Paychex is a provider of comprehensive payroll, human resource, and benefits outsourcing solutions for small and medium sized businesses.

Paychex Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average estimate of analysts is for profit of 40 cents per share, a rise of 2.6% from the company’s actual earnings for the same quarter a year ago. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from 41 cents. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has been unchanged at 40 cents during the last month. Analysts are projecting profit to rise by 6.6% compared to last year’s $1.61.

Past Earnings Performance: Last quarter, the company topped estimates by 0 cents, coming in at net income of 42 cents per share against a mean estimate of profit of 41 cents. The company fell in line with estimates in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year.

Wall St. Revenue Expectations: Analysts are projecting a rise of 5% in revenue from the year-earlier quarter to $573 million.

Balance Sheet Analysis: The company’s current ratio of assets to liabilities came in at 1.1 last quarter. The current ratio is an indication of a firm’s liquidity and ability to meet creditor demands and generally, for every dollar the company owes in the short term, it has that figure available in assets that can be converted to cash in the short term.

A Look Back: In the first quarter, profit rose 2.8% to $153.1 million (42 cents a share) from $148.9 million (41 cents a share) the year earlier, exceeding analyst expectations. Revenue rose 2.7% to $578.2 million from $563.1 million.

Key Stats:

This upcoming earnings announcement will be a chance to build on positive earnings momentum over the last three quarters. Net income rose 3.7% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year and 3.7% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year before increasing again in the first quarter.

On the top line, the company is looking to build on four-straight revenue increases heading into this earnings announcement. Revenue rose 6.6% in the second quarter of the last fiscal year, 7.2% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year and 5.5% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year before increasing again in the first quarter.

Analyst Ratings: There are mostly holds on the stock with 17 of 22 analysts surveyed giving that rating.